Taipei prosecutors charged two Taipei Municipal Jen Ai Hospital doctors late Monday with "professional error leading to the death" of a young girl who was beaten up by her father.
The five-year-old girl surnamed Chiu, after being beaten by her father, was sent to Jen Ai Hospital, where doctors Liu Chi-hua (劉奇樺) and Lin Chih-nan (林致男) were on duty at the emergency unit.
The prosecutors quoted a Department of Health report as saying that the girl was in a deep coma when she arrived at the hospital. She was refused treatment and had to be transferred to a Taichung County hospital some 200km away, where she later died.
The department's report said the worsening of her condition and eventual death could not be conclusively linked to the two doctors' failure to offer timely treatment.
Still, the prosecution said, not only did the two doctors fail to diagnose the girl's injury but they also forged her medical record.
Forgery is a clear violation of the medical ethics guidelines, the prosecutors said.
The girl's father, Chiu Kuang-jen (邱光仁), was charged with assault and manslaughter, an offense that the prosecution said could be punishable by a 12-year jail sentence.
The girl's injury and death created a storm of protest, with demands that social workers and doctors engage in serious soul-searching to prevent a repeat occurrence of the incident.
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